Jimmy Buffettt has passed.
I’m not sure JB created lifestyle music – but he created a lifestyle music. What he called Gulf and Western – was about beaches and adult beverages and low-rent decadence that tapped into the psyche of millions.
Including me. I live in the Caribbean in no small part because I spent a lot of early years crushing his first eight major label albums.
I learned basic guitar song structure – from his basic guitar song structures. And I learned harmonica from copying his Coral Reefer Band mate – Greg “Fingers” Taylor.
He was a great songwriter – in the sense that in his songs he could capture and vividly deliver stories. About people – and parts of America, then the world – about which we dreamed, but most of us would never see.
Except through him and his music.
He was also an entrepreneur deluxe. He turned his G & W lifestyle into restaurants and bars, resorts and living communities. He wrote books – autobiographies, short stories and novels. His songs inspired a Broadway musical.
He flew planes and captained ships all over the planet. He lived stories – and then shared them.
He fully embodied the maxim “Life isn’t a destination – it’s a journey.”
Rest In Peace.
Photo: Mike’s Birds from Riverside, CA, US; Creative Commons
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